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VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW

The closest and most friendly of our feathered neighbors out here in the Pacific Northwest, is the violet-green swallow. They like the plainest of bird houses stuck in some out-of-the-way place, protected from wind and rain. In fact, a box nailed inside some shed, with a knot-hole entrance, is best of all. They will return year after year and use the same box if the detested English sparrows have been kept out of it!

This bird of the west coast (and he is a true "westerner") has a long breeding range - from California to the Yukon - and seems to follow civilization wherever it begins. In the spring, perhaps in February, we have early arrivals in flocks that may linger over some swamp to feed and then depart northward. We may read in the paper next day that their appearance means an early spring, etc., but it is simply a flock headed northward, perhaps to the Yukon country. We have nesting records as far as Teller. Then there is a pause until March and some morning we awaken to find our local bird back on the telephone wire beside our window. Then spring is here.

The birds in the park are more or less migrants in spring and fall, but in late summer many feed over our alpine meadows where mosquitoes are plentiful. Grand Park and the Reflection Lake country are favorite feeding grounds. We have no actual breeding records for the park, though each year several birds will play around the Longmire Inn. However, they do not stay long. This also happens about Sunshine Point near the Nisqually Entrance. We have one late fall record of a flock passing over Yakima Park on September 23, 1937.

It takes some time for the beginner to identify his swallows. An hour at some swamp in the spring will be well spent. With this bird the real violet-green color above is identifying, while the pure white under parts extending almost around the neck as a collar should be seen and remembered. As much of their life is spent a-wing, the feet are weak and used only for perching.

Violet-green swallows use feathers and some grasses for nesting material. The box or cavity is pretty well filled, then the cup, or nest proper, of feathers is shaped in the far corner. Whatever colored feathers are chosen, that color only is used - there is never a mixture. If gray chicken feathers are abundant, the nest is made of them only; if white feathers are chosen, the nest is all white. I have white, gray and red nests in my collection as well as two prize nests - one of bronze turkey feathers and one of gull feathers. Four to six pure white eggs are laid, and the nesting season begins the last week in May, although the birds commence looking and fussing for a nesting site a month earlier.

Keep the sparrows out of the boxes in early spring if you want the swallows to remain on your premises in summer.

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TREE SWALLOW

The tree swallow is quite likely to be mistaken for the preceding bird. However, careful observation should distinguish its steel-blue back and head. The underparts are white, but that color does not run up around the neck as in the violet-green swallow. Both birds are seen near civilization, but the tree swallow does not use our bird houses, nor does it nest in buildings. It prefers holes in trees made by the Gairdner's woodpecker or flicker, but its favorite site is in the hollow openings of an old oak tree growing in some open field. Here, in the spring, one may see several birds circling or hovering around these entrance holes like bees before a hive.

It is not until later that actual nest-building begins. Material used consists of straw, grasses and feathers, but the nest is loosely made and not compact as is that of the violet-green. Four to six, usually five, pure white eggs are laid.

We have few park records. Taylor and Shaw record then at Mount Ruth, and the writer observed two birds at Reflection Lake on August 16, 1933. Perhaps our altitude is too high as a breeding country. They nest earlier than do the violet-greens, having eggs before the middle of May. At that time the alpine country is still snow-covered. Nevertheless, we could and can offer a nice, dead alpine tree with a flicker hole in it that should tempt them!

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Descriptions continued...